The Credit Card President

The other day I got to thinking about the future of the country under the Obama administration. That we are headed for unsustainable debt for future generations I take for granted. The move is afoot for a socialization of medical care in this country. Not that the poorer among us should not have access to quality care…it is how that should be accomplished.

As my twin sons had to leave their parents’ health care program due to graduation from college, we investigated several options. What we came up with was a form of catastrophic health care called “Young Adult Blue.” The plan has an annual deductible of $1000, a co-pay of 30% of BCBSM-approved amount, two other co-pay stipulations, with a 70% coverage after co-pays for medical emergencies, tests, EKGS, etc., plus a $5,000,000 lifetime coverage for under $50 a month.

The plan isn’t for everyone, and prescription costs are not covered, nor are doctor visits, but it does provide a safety net for catastrophic events that could otherwise bankrupt a young adult for life.

However, Obama’s plan is insidious in that his promotion of it is full of promises which provide little more than his word as a guarantee. Over half of the population, recently polled, are against it.

Something will get to his desk for his signature, but even Democrats are finding this overhaul of the finest health care system in the world not the right fit in this economy. It has been estimated that the Obama proposal would increase federal spending by about $1.17 trillion over the 2010-19 period.

Following right behind this initiative of the president is his “green energy” plan. The bill, which Obama has said will reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and clean the air, calls for a reduction of carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020, and for 20 percent of the nation's energy to be renewable – such as wind and solar – by 2020. The bill, in its current form, could potentially cause rates to go up by 5 to 15 percent by 2016.

The U.S. House approved Obama's plan in a 219-212 vote. Its successful future in the Senate is a bit more dubious. We’ll have to wait until September for their vote.

Republicans in the House were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the middle of a recession, while burdening customers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis estimates the cost of the president's plan to homeowners would, on average, be approximately $175 to $180 a year after tax credits and rebates were taken into account.

If the plan is adopted it will be a “Johnny-come-lately” version of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 which my global issues classes debated. The problem today is that India, China, and Mexico have said they’re more interested in economic growth that in curbing carbon emissions.

So, while well-intentioned, the effect of the “cap and trade” policy in the U.S. on the globe may be a lot less than hoped and a lot more money out of U.S. households for electricity.

Who’s going to run this proposed program to curb emissions? “Green czar” Van Jones. Born in 1968 in rural West Tennessee, Van Jones earned a B.A. degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin and then attended Yale Law School. During his years at Yale, Jones served as an intern with the San Francisco-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR), which views the United States as an irredeemably racist nation and "champions the legal rights of people of color, poor people, immigrants and refugees, with a special commitment to African-Americans."

Jones says that he first became politically radicalized in the aftermath of the deadly April 1992 Los Angeles riots which erupted shortly after four L.A. police officers who had beaten the infamous Rodney King were exonerated in court. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th," says Jones, who is black, "and then the verdicts came down on April 29th. By August, I was a communist."

Jones was arrested during the L.A. riots and spent a short time in jail. "I met all these young radical people of color," he recalls, "I mean really radical: communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.' I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary."

I guess people can change political philosophy or at least modify it, as Jones apparently has, but, again, it’s the cost of the program that gives me pause.

Obama seems to see his role as destined to change American society into a socialist state. He has an unlimited appetite for using future generations’ wages with his own method of payment … the credit card called the U.S. Treasury.

Mr. President, you are the “Credit Card President” of a country that has run out of credit.